EMCC’s Morgan Goodrich named 2019-20 Ozark Region Rodeo Coach of the Year
East Mississippi Community College’s Morgan Goodrich has been named the 2019-20 Ozark Region Rodeo Coach of the Year, as announced this week by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA).
SCOOBA — East Mississippi Community College's Morgan Goodrich has been named the 2019-20 Ozark Region Rodeo Coach of the Year, as announced this week by the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association (NIRA).
By finishing the shortened regular season as reserve champions with a second-place team finish in the NIRA's Ozark Region standings, EMCC's 2019-20 women's team had qualified for the College National Finals Rodeo (CNFR) for the first time in program history prior to the event's cancellation due to the current COVID-19 pandemic. East Mississippi also featured a pair of regional individual champions and nationally top-ranked performers with freshman Jaylie Matthews in barrel racing and sophomore steer wrestler Myles Neighbors.
The EMCC women finished this past season with a program-best No. 12 national team ranking, including a team title at the Three Rivers College fall event and a runner-up finish during February's EMCC-hosted rodeo held at the Lauderdale County Agri-Center in Meridian. The EMCC men's team tied for 25th nationally among the NIRA standings and placed fourth regionally, highlighted by a first-place finish at the Southern Arkansas University event during the fall season.
In her 10th season as EMCC's head rodeo coach, Goodrich, a Scooba native, has guided six men's teams and two women's teams to top-30 national finishes despite going head-to-head mostly against university-level teams within the competitive Ozark Region. The Lions posted three consecutive top-10 national team finishes (2016-18) at the College National Finals Rodeo, along with having featured CNFR individual national champions Marcus Theriot and Tristan Martin in 2016 and 2018, respectively.
Overall in men's and women's rodeo competition under Goodrich's guidance this past decade, EMCC has had a total of 26 qualifiers for the CNFR, including three women (Matthews, Kayley Kennemer and Blair Bryant) and two men (Neighbors and Sam Morgan) from this year's East Mississippi team. In addition, eight EMCC student-athletes have combined to claim a total of 14 NIRA Ozark Region individual season championships since the program's inception in 2010.